The Widow's Mite

I've been thinking about a passage from the Gospel of Mark, that's often referred to as "the Widow's mite."


"Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.

But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.[

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.

They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on."


The passage has been in my mind because of a piece I did on Phil Vischer, the founder of Big Idea Productions, the maker of Veggie Tales. The company went bankrupt last summer, and was sold off this past December.

What went wrong? Vischer said it was because he was driven to make the biggest impact possible for God--he had to do big things for God--because he thought that was the most important thing in life.

What he never considered, he told me, was that it might be just as important to do small things for God. Which now, after losing Big Idea, is what he's up to. Doing small things for God and letting God take care of the impact of those small things.

That's the point of the Widow's mite. Small things matter. That's something to remember in these days when megachurches and bestselling spiritual books get all the headlines.